Sunday, 28 February 2016

Wild West Campaign Update

Last night we played the third full session of our Wild West campaign. My players learned a few interesting things.

-Five of the six players found themselves stuck in a ranch-house with a pregnant indian squaw, a hostile family of Sioux-hating pig ranchers,and the prisoner they were escorting to Hays City to be hung. They were immediately surrounded by the condemned man's four bloodthirsty cousins, and more generally surrounded by Sioux braves on the warpath.

-A shootout ensued with the ranch house surrounded by the cousins which tested the players' skills, and also the learning process of figuring out the mechanics of Aces & Eights combat. It went fairly well all told, with a lot of help from some great handouts (crib sheets for the combat system) and a VERY helpful player who kept the player side of things organized, managing to guide the less mechanics-trained players on how to figure out their speed and accuracy bonuses. One of the players found the process a bit too complicated, but the rest were quite excited by a combat system that is a lot more intensive and detailed than D&D.

-They managed to fight off the Tripper cousins, and save the Sioux woman and her newborn; and thus got themselves spared by the Sioux war party in gratitude.

-Amusingly, they had Deputy Marshall Wyatt Earp with them, but he didn't really do anything.

-That group got out without anyone being hurt. Meanwhile, the Mormon gambler found himself intervening to help out the saloon girl he fancies, only to have her former beau hire a local simpleton to shoot him in the guts. This led to an interesting exploration of the systems for injury, surgery, blood loss, and infection. Surprisingly for us all, the Gambler miraculously recovered in spite of having only 8 CON, thanks to the careful doctoring of the curmudgeonly town doctor.

-The girl he fancies got herself kidnapped by her former beau, but was rescued by Sheriff Charlie Bassett. He really existed too, and was a great lawman that helped train some of the greatest gunslingers and lawmen of the west, even though he's much less well known today. Here's a picture: